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Game of Thrones: what’s all the fuss about?

I’m sure a lot of people will hate me for this post, and that’s fine; please feel free to let me know in the comments! I recently moved in with my boyfriend, who is a big fan of Game of Thrones despite not yet seeing the two most recent series. Because I’m such a great girlfriend I agreed to start watching from the first series with him.

My curiosity was piqued when it first came out because loads of my friends raved about it but I never got around to watching it for myself. At the time I was massively in to Sons of Anarchy and any TV-watching time I had was taken up by that.

I’m not the biggest fan of fantasy. Much of my criticism about Game of Thrones isn’t anything to do with the quality of the show and is mainly down to my inability to concentrate and take any of it in. My little brain just doesn’t seem to be able to comprehend complicated stories about mythical beings and fantasy lands unless it is put into really, really simple terms, so much of Game of Thrones was totally lost on me; I saw the adorable baby dire wolves in the first episode and spent the rest of that episode squealing about how cute they were rather than paying any attention, so anything I don’t understand is kind of my own fault. And the puppies. Blame the puppies.

What I do like about GoT are some of the individual characters, although some of them I hate and want to punch (I’m looking at you, King Joffrey). The family and relationship dramas that go on amongst all the fighting and fantasy are what keeps me interested.

My other half and many friends and colleagues who are fans of the show had built GoT up so much in my mind that I had very high expectations. I was expecting a thrill ride, a tumultuous and exciting series that’d have me enthralled from the start so I was very surprised when the series started to literally bore me to sleep. Perhaps it’s just simply not my ‘thing’, which is fine; given the fact that so many thousands of people absolutely love the show I’d say that I am probably a very small and insignificant minority. I’m cool with that.

I recently watched Outlander, which was likened somewhere online to the soccer mum’s Game of Thrones. I can see why some might think it a tamer, more female ‘soccer mum’ type of show, however I’ve got to be completely honest, I found Outlander to be far more exciting to watch. Antagonist ‘Black Jack’ (Tobias Menzies) was far more formidable than any of the antagonists in GoT, particularly that little squirt Joffrey who I’d quite happily poke in the eye. I’m not saying that Outlander is better, but if I had to pick a fantasy adventure type TV series that keeps me enthralled and excited I’d pick that over GoT any day.

It probably doesn’t help that I fell asleep during several episodes, or that my attention kept drifting to other things like Word Buzz (which is the latest game I’ve become addicted to playing on my tablet!) but when we reached the penultimate episode I couldn’t help but wonder (out loud, which annoyed my other half somewhat) whether anything had happened at all. He told me that he thought the first series was ‘amazing’, and couldn’t believe what I’d said because, in his mind ‘lots had happened’. He berated me for falling asleep too many times and not paying attention,and maybe that’s the reason. But to be honest even if I’d been completely awake throughout the whole series I can’t help but think I’d still feel the same; not much really happened. And my God the dialogue scenes are SO FUCKING LONG! It’s no wonder I fell asleep so many times, Game of Thrones really pushes its dialogue to the absolute limit, and then some. It’s a sign of a shit story if a film or TV show has to explain itself that much. I get that it’s complicated and there’s a lot of characters with made up names to get to know; of course some explanation is necessary to set the scene but my God does it go on!

It wasn’t the exciting thrill ride I had been led to believe. It wasn’t the fantasy epic that I thought it’d be and sadly I’ve come away not giving a fuck about any of the characters and not remotely hooked on the story. I don’t know about dragons, but it certainly did drag-on.

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11 thoughts on “Game of Thrones: what’s all the fuss about?”

I was behind on the hype too and it took me halfway through Season One to get it, but once you ‘get it’, it is incredible. No dialogue scene becomes too long, because the characters are so good, you just want to spend time with them. And while not much happens, so much is happening at the same time. It is hard to describe.

But don’t worry – as long as you keep on coming up with the ‘drag-on’ puns, we will forgive you 😉

Don’t worry. My other half and I really enjoyed the first two seasons, though we didn’t get the hype. We actually stopped watching in the middle of season three then we went back to it (a year later) and finished it and season four was really bland. We haven’t even seen the latest season yet. GoT is good, and I love fantasy, but after season two the show seems to be plagued with two good opening episodes, a lot of lull, then episodes seven, eight, and nine being very entertaining and then a boring closer. You can’t be hated. It is a good show, but it isn’t up there for me with some of my others.

Well this is very unique. Casting is awesome – very high production values – great story – great writing – great dialogue and characters. Unpredictable events … and on and on. Almost in a league of it’s own.

Hi Natasha. I have just finished watching 60 episodes, not because it thrilled me but, because I kept thinking after each episode ‘if I watch the next one I’m sure to get it.’ But I didn’t. I should point out that I have not read the novel so my feelings are solely about the TV series. It concerns me somewhat that it did nothing positive for me except bore me into a deep sleep on many occasions. It is quite an epic and the screenplay is terrific but oh so much padding just to fuel the fans voracious appetites, I imagine. As a blogger and amateur writer myself I appreciate the enormity of the project but often bigger is not better. I wanted to write a post for my blog but having read all the rave reviews I realised I would be unable to offer constructive criticism. So I re-considered wondering if I could possibly be the only one in step. So congratulations on sticking your neck out. I think you hit the nail squarely on the head when you said “…not giving a fuck about any of the characters and not remotely hooked on the story.” My sentiments as well and I might go a little further and say ‘what is the story?’ I know it’s a fantasy but for me there needs to be an element of credibility but so much incredibility was jumbled up with credibility that it became a total mishmash at times. And when the Red Bird raised Jon Snow from the dead I immediately knew where Jesus got the idea to raise Lazarus from. Some of the acting was good but lost in the whole confusion and mayhem. And some of it lead me to believe that all the living porn stars had been auditioned and those that could string a few words together were hired. And when you are stuck for words just bung another Fuck, Cock or C…t in and that will satisfy the most discerning viewer. Make sure the kids are in bed too. Now I’ve got that off my chest I have to say I really wanted it to be exciting and am disappointed it wasn’t. But it’s given us something to write about.

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Natasha Harmer

Writer/Blogger and full time marketing officer, currently living in Walsall, UK. Just an average 20-something; slave to three guinea pigs and one fiancé, just muddling through life and enjoying the little things.
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